Troublesome Passageways
by Inconstant Addict
Summary: A nonHBP compliant fic, what happens when Ginny meets Tom again? He's changed, not quite the person he was, or is it all just the same game to him?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Read this to yourself in a boring, monotone voice and my duty will be done: "Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to the author of this story. In fact, the plot is probably something half remembered from another story or movie or book. All of the proper nouns hereafter mentioned belong to someone else -- mostly, if not totally, by J.K. Rowling." The disclaimer will apply to all six chapters. This story is NON-HBP COMPLIANT. I hope that you enjoy the story.

Ginny walked the halls of the Hogwarts Castle, confident that no one would bother her. Some worshiped her, some feared her, and some were simply apathetic. She was a well-respected Gryffindor, friend and sister of the Golden Trio. That was enough to keep seventy-five percent of the school at bay. The Slytherins were helpfully mindful – cautious – of her connection to their Dark Lord. It was late, but she continued towards the North Tower, sure of some solitude.

It was too late to wander about safely. Filch would start roaming the halls in a matter of minutes. There must be a secret passageway somewhere in this hallway. There were passageways everywhere, and as the little sister of Fred and George Weasley, it was almost her duty to know as many of them that she could.

She vaguely remembered Hermione telling her about a passage that went directly between her two favorite spots in the castle. Now, the question was, where was it? And what was the password? No, she decided that there wasn't a word. She just had to tap the correct section of the wall with her wand.

And the wall was... Now she remembered. There was supposed to be a small drawing of an arrow inscribed in the wall. She began pulling at the tapestries to look behind them.

Behind the second panel there was a carving of a black dragon (at eye level for her, although significantly below eye level for most people). Ginny, always the curious one, put her hand over the miniature carving. It pulsed like a heartbeat and warmed her hand.

Footsteps manifested behind her. "Hurry, hurry, hurry," she chanted... at the wall... not looking insane at all... hoping that it was in fact a passage and not just a random carving on the wall. It was her lucky night. Right before Filch could turn the corner, the door slid open soundlessly. She stepped inside quickly (eager to avoid a detention), and the wall closed, erasing all clues of her presence.

It was of course curious that she hadn't found the correct marking, but it was like the old saying went: any port in a storm. Or, in this case, any secret passageway to avoid a detention from Filch.

Filch and his rather unusual cat, Mrs. Norris, walked through the hall. He looked suspiciously around every corner, hoping to catch an unruly student that he could slip through the cracks of Dumbledore's "no torture" policy. Mrs. Norris also turned her red eyes as though to see everything at once. They both felt that there was a student nearby. Mrs. Norris meowed and arched her back next to the wall that Ginny had just gone through. Filch could see nothing unusual, so they simply agreed to move on but come back at a later time. Ginny remained undiscovered, and Filch never found that passage.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'm sorry if some of this seems confusing (ex: most of the pronouns have no precedent) but I was trying to think of how I talk to myself (I swear that I'm not too crazy), and I rarely make sense to anyone beyond my computer or the stack of coats sitting next to me on the post of my bed. I did tone it down quite a bit, but even so, I think that had I not written it, I would be confused at one or two points. Just remember, vague isn't so bad. You'll live. I think... I'll get a first aid kit just in case.

Ginny held her breath as she listened to Filch pass, frightened lest the minuscule sound give her away. He passed, and Ginny returned her attention to her very dark surroundings.

"Lumos," she whispered. Her wand tip lit, and she gasped. The hidden passage was actually a stairway. A stairway that had carvings winding along the walls. Down was not where she wanted to go. Down was ominous.

If she thought about it too much, this entire situation reminded her of him. That's why she favored NOT thinking too much. The hall behind her would not be Filch-free for the rest of the night. There was no choice.

_At least it isn't a stone slide._ She could feel the magic around her, just like it had been before, when...

In an effort to stop her treacherous brain, she looked for something to watch or listen. All she could find were the wall carvings and the echo of her footsteps.

Those snakes – they were a very Slytherin decoration. Perhaps Salazar had created this passage, too. She was just thankful that they seemed to be solid, immobile stone.

In a strange way, she missed his attention. He had been the worst and best part of that year – of her life. Friendship and horror. Of course, all of it did turn out to be rather more malignant than she had expected.

Not only had he played with people's lives, unworthily deciding the fates of others, but he had done so only by playing upon her emotions. Nothing would ever undo the havoc he had wreaked upon her heart. Dramatic as it sounded, her innocence lost in one fell swoop of the enemy.

At the age of eleven, she had made an acquaintance that would shape certainly the rest of her school years. It was astonishing when she thought about it, that something so small as the yearning for a friendly face among the throng of people could change her life so dramatically. Ginny often wondered what would have happened had small things been ever so slightly different.

Take a simple case. If she had simply gone with her parents to Diagon Alley on a different day, she would never have met him. Someone else would have had to open the Chamber. If it hadn't been her, would the Chamber have ever been opened? Would Harry have still gone after the unfortunate victim? Would he have come back or would he have disappeared forever?

Ginny's gloomy mental monologue had carried her down much of the stairway. She looked down and counted the steps to the bottom. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. She triumphantly ended her journey of a thousand stairs and looked to face her destination.

She took in the comfortably-sized room and the door on the far wall, but the only thing she processed was him. Tom.

Hermione looked at the Marauder's Map to locate Ginny. She said that she wanted to think, and Hermione expected to see her in one of her normal haunts. There was no trace of Ginny on the map. Not even a secret passage held her name. She had disappeared.

A/N: So, who wants a band-aid? Anyone? Anyone? No casualties? Okay, then I will move on.


	3. Chapter 3

Blind panic ensued. The magic that Ginny had grown up with was forgotten in the terror of the moment. She heard footsteps behind her. _Please. He's just an apparition, a ghost, a giant spider. Anything._

Ginny was flat-out sprinting when the hem of her robe and gravity decided to disagree with her simultaneously. The hem ripped, and Ginny tumbled. She caught herself, but Tom was there even as she was scrambling to a semi-upright position.

Using his advantages of height, weight, and horrifyingly close links to Voldemort, Tom trapped her against the stairs. Faced with something she could physically fight, she struggled. Tom barely seemed to notice but was apparently aware enough of her actions to stop her hands before they reached his face.

He took her wrists in his hands, and Ginny continued her useless fight. He calmly placed both wrists in one hand and reached to her robe. From its inner pocket, he withdrew her wand – her forgotten defense.

"Not this time, Ginny." He spoke calmly, just as he always had and probably always would. She renewed her struggle with new degrees of ferocity.

"Stupefy."

She couldn't move. She couldn't see. She couldn't hear – or was he just not making any noise? Ginny was helpless in the hands of her childhood savior and tormentor. The one who abused and mystified her. No good could come of this.

Tom himself felt that this was the best position he'd been in in years. He was in Hogwarts, and no one suspected his presence. He was in a secret passageway that could only be opened by those with the blood of Salazar Slytherin running through their veins. And, he had a now complacent – although unwillingly complacent – Ginny in his arms. It had been only too easy to call her mind to that spot and use his excellent timing to open the passage door. Unfortunately, one of his perfect quartet was about to be ruined.

"Enervate."

Ginny felt the arms holding her and knew that it hadn't just been a horrible dream as she had hoped. She struck blindly with her fist in the direction she was sure Tom's face was. Rather anticlimactically, her hand hit nothing but air.

She opened her eyes and decided that she just couldn't aim when she was frightened out of her wits. With her new vision of Tom's face disturbingly real and close, she began her attacks where they had left off.

"You have three choices as I see it." Well, choices were better than she had expected. Therefore, it followed that she could expect none of the choices to be to her liking. "You may stop this useless assault on your own, I can use a spell to weaken you, or I can tie you up." She had been right to expect his old demeanor and some of his old manners. How pleasant reunions with old pals could be.

"How about you put me down!" She shrieked, pounding him with her fists.

"Fine." He stopped walking down the stairs and set her on her feet a step above him. Ginny, not about to question her amazingly unrealistic luck, took one step and grimly understood Tom's willingness as her ankle gave out beneath her.

How he could have known about her injury even before she did was a mystery, but what power did Tom Riddle have except for that of mystery, charm, and brilliant tricks?

She took her second fall in five minutes, but this time, she was caught. He supported her – or held her struggling body in place, depending upon whose viewpoint you trust – with one arm and pulled out her wand with the other.

He sighed. "I did give you a fair chance. Incarcerous." The spell was one that Ginny could guess the meaning of, considering the obviously Latin roots. Ropes shot out of his wand, and Ginny realized that she had been all too correct.

She was now restrained. Conscious, but restrained. "Things would have been easier if you had just relaxed." Ginny turned from him as much as she physically could while she was confined by ropes and being carried down the stairs by him.

Silence prevailed on the trip down the surprisingly numerous steps that she had covered. A sort of triumph entered her thoughts at her ability to outrun Tom for so long, despite all of his advantages. At the end of the stairs, he didn't hesitate as he turned toward the door.

He vaguely – only Tom could do this vaguely – kicked the door, and it opened, looking almost frightened (yes, the door looked frightened).

Through the door was a room full of obsidian and glass. Not particularly comfortable, but very fitting. Everything was solid, nothing vulnerable. Even the chairs around the glass table seemed to be of obsidian, but that was probably a trick of the light. There were two doors: one on the left, and one on the right. The left-side door was black oak. The other was more interesting. It looked like silver wood with grains of gold running through it every once in a while. Tom moved toward the right.

He was much gentler with this door, actually making an effort to use the doorknob. He stooped slightly, turned the knob, and pushed.

The room inside reflected somewhat of what the door had – a Slytherin attempting to appease a Gryffindor. There was a green carpet and a black leather couch, but there was also a nice fire and gold pillows. There were two leather armchairs as well, but they made no conciliatory efforts. Beyond the farthest chair, Ginny was mysteriously blind.

Tom carefully laid her down and moved gracefully to the chair away from the fire to take a seat. Now, it was hard to see his face, and thus his expressions, without craning her neck uncomfortably.

"I have been watching you."

_A wonderful icebreaker. I wonder how long it took him to come up with such a snappy conversation-starter._ Ginny shivered in fear, wondering where and when exactly that meant, but a somewhat hopeful doubt invaded her brain. "You died in my First Year, right after you tried to kill me." She spat out the last bit with all the bitterness that only betrayal can create.

"Both statements are true, but you should know that I am not one to be easily deterred by death. I am not exactly the Tom that tried to kill you."

"Who are you?"

"Are you sure that you want to know?" His apparent placidity was frustrating.

Ginny was silent, and he took that for a negative answer.

"Why are you scared of me?" She couldn't see his face, but his voice was contemplative.

Ginny stared at him (as well as she could) for a minute. Tom was not in the habit of asking her stupid questions. In fact, she usually remembered him knowing a little too much about her emotions without any information at all. "I'm scared of you," she said relatively calmly "because you tried to kill me, you tried to kill my friends, and you are currently attempting to take over the world."

Tom lifted a finger, obviously about to deny some part of her accusations. "I'm trying to take over the world? Since when? I think that this is a case of mistaken identity. I am not Voldemort. He is my future self, but I will never become him."

"Wasn't it you who told me that the best way to lie was to say something that was realistic and easily plausible?"

"Yes, but perhaps I neglected to mention the phenomenon known as telling the truth. Truth is infinitely less likely than lies. Since I know how to properly lie, and I'm telling you something that seems like a lie, doesn't it follow that I'm telling the truth?"

That confusing logic was a little much for Ginny to follow very quickly in her confused state, but she soon found an argument that was sufficient. "Yes, I suppose that that would seem logical, which makes it even more likely that you are lying to me because you know that I know that you know how to lie." This particular spiel seemed like it should be accompanied with some sort of hand movement, but she was still tied by his stupid spell.

"Your logic hasn't changed, I see."

"Would you ever want it to?" A slight pause ensued. Then, he spoke once more, apparently not giving up his former topic.

"Since you are still scared of me, I suppose that means that you still think of me constantly, as you once did." He appeared thoughtful, but that could easily be a trick of the senses.

"I'm afraid that my therapist keeps bringing you up as the root of all my problems."

"Ah, sarcasm. I thought that we had cured you of that habit."

"It's not a habit so much as a lifestyle. And after all the crap that you put me through, how do you know that I don't have a therapist and that you aren't the root of all my problems?" She was still distressed and she wasn't about to let this astonishingly civil conversation ruin that anytime soon.

"You are circling. I came here to talk. Not listen to you chase your proverbial tail." He actually looked rather more serious than she could ever remember seeing him look. It actually seemed possible that he might not be lying, but the chances were still slim. "I told you that I have been watching you. You should not be there. It's hostile."

"You? You, of all people, complain to me about hostile environments?"

"I am not an angel. I never claimed to be. Those people do not understand you. I was not hostile to you. I can give you more than they ever could. I am willing to do that." This met with a shocked silence that Tom seemingly took as some sort of approval or compliance. "So it is settled. You will stay here." As he said this, he waved his hand and the ropes disappeared.

"I would rather take my hostility to my face than to my back. Stay away from me." Taking advantage of her newfound freedom of limb, Ginny quickly jumped up and grabbed her wand where it was sitting on the arm of the couch.

Tom made no move to stop her. Not even when she ran to the door. His motive – or lack of motive, as the case may be – was explained with the simple refusal of the door to budge. "It will not obey you."

"It's a door! You turn the doorknob! It's not difficult!" Her voice rose with each sentence as tears of frustration began to burn in her eyes. She slumped against the door, huddling protectively in a corner that was all her own.

There were no other exits. No trap doors. This place belonged to Tom and Tom alone. She couldn't even open a stupid door without his help. The only place that was hers was the small place that she controlled, and at the moment, that was just her one lonely corner next to the door.

Tom knelt in front of her, but she refused to acknowledge him. He pulled her forward and seemed ready to attempt to comfort her in some way, but Ginny was angry at him, and she knew it. She pushed him away and fled to a different corner.

Still facing towards the corner where she had been not a minute ago, he calmly said "Ginny, You will not return to them. I can help you avoid their apathy, their malice. I am offering you a chance at escape." With that, he left the room and allowed her the solitude that she had sought at the beginning of the night.

Hermione found the boys sitting in front of the fire playing wizard's chess. It appeared that Harry might have gotten even worse... She quickly told them of her discovery and Ron ripped the map out of her hands, disbelievingly. For several minutes, he stared at it, trying to locate her neatly written name in some remote but documented place in the castle. She was not to be found. Ron was... upset... Vehemently upset...


	4. Chapter 4

Ginny used her solitude to rouse herself from shock and force herself to think on his actions, his words – anything that might help her to escape from this long-dreamed and dreaded nightmare.

It was unusual of Tom to do something so drastic as to kidnap her. It seemed as though he just wanted to keep her here. That didn't seem like an intelligent, or even worthwhile, idea to her, but killing roosters had seemed kind of stupid, too. He had to want something from her. It was possible that he was using her against Harry, as he had before. It was even possible that he needed some talent of hers for some sort of plot. What seemed most likely, however, she didn't know. It was difficult to conceive of what he wanted. Tom always had an ulterior motive for any kind of niceness and such offerings were certainly his idea of "nice". She had learned last time that it was best to discover the motive before he took whatever it was that he wanted from you.

His demeanor, his manners, his very expressions had been perfectly schooled for years to avoid any kind of proper observation. Fortunately, he had schooled for a naïve outsider, not someone that he himself had taught to hide and read emotions. She was still somewhat of a novice, but during that year, she had been an attentive student, learning all that should could. Even Tom could be read, right along with the most dramatic teenagers. It just took a bit more knowledge of his moods and habits, a subject in which she was probably one of the most well-informed people in the world.

His expressions told her that he was being cautious. There was something that he didn't want to screw up. She rarely had the privilege of making Tom worry. Beyond that, she couldn't place any other expressions or tones, or at least none that she recognized. There had been something different in his manner of speaking, but it was subtle and new to her.

It was his words that were the most curious. To actually go to such trouble as trying to deny her Hogwarts. To claim that he wanted to help her "escape." Of all things that Ginny could have expected when she first saw him again, it was not that. Not even close. She had expected something at least on a more... plotting level. Or maybe even information gathering.

It was plain to Ginny that she simply didn't know what to make of the situation. If only she could have someone else's opinion. It was her observation that in any relationship, the only two people confused about the relationship (mostly) were the two people mainly involved. Outside opinions, although in this case not recommended, were generally useful and more objective. What she wouldn't give for someone to talk to about this who wouldn't screech something about "Voldemort." Alas, that was not within the realm of possibility. There was simply nothing that she could do.

Well, she could try the door again. She went to the door and turned the knob and pushed. "'Try pulling, love." Tom's voice rang from the room itself, and she started ever so slightly. For a few seconds she considered making some remark, but decided that if Tom was going to let her out, she wasn't going to do anything to convince him otherwise.

She pulled, and the door opened to reveal the obsidian room she had remembered. She walked to the door, but before she got there, Tom's head popped up from the couch. "Going somewhere, love?" She nearly growled aloud.

"Yes. I am going back to my dormitory before I am found to be missing, and would you stop calling me love!"

"I can't let you do that, princess. You haven't told me what your decision is."

"Alright. First, the pet names are creepy. Especially from you."

"You used to like them so much."

"Yeah. When I was eleven, and you hadn't tried to kill me and my friends yet. Anyway, there is probably no way in hell I would stay with you. How dare you even have the presumption to act like I might. Even thinking that there was a possibility is an insult." Her fury began with a cold voice and raised until she was sure that he got the drift of her anger.

Tom had no problems hearing her anger. He didn't even have any problems comprehending the anger. If their situations had been reversed, he would have killed her several years ago. Fortunately, they weren't. His challenge now was to keep her there without making her angry enough to hex him... too seriously. "Ginny, why don't we sit down and talk about this?" He deliberately placed himself between her and the door. He bowed and offered her his hand, looking very much the gentleman.

Ginny purposefully ignored the hand, the bow, and the body placement. She tried to push past him, but when she did, he took the hand meant to push him to the side. "Splendid," he said while trying to lead her, instead of pull her, to a seat.

"Tom, let go of my hand." He slowly released her hand, which she promptly snatched to her side. They were sitting now. He had originally placed them close together, but she immediately slid as far from him as she could. Tom pretended not to notice, and, in all honesty, he had somewhat expected the reaction. "Just let me leave." Ginny sounded tired to Tom. That was probably because she had had a full day of classes and it was almost midnight.

"You can't leave yet."

"But why?"

"Because I don't want you to."

"You can't decide for me where I go and what I do. I'm a big girl now, Tom. I can make my own decisions. In fact, my decisions seem to lead me to less trouble than yours do."

"But you are deciding. Give me another chance to explain, and then you may leave."

The offer was very tempting to Ginny. She was still angry with him, but she could understand the sense of the offer. He got another chance to talk her into whatever he wanted her to do. She could refuse. If she stayed calm enough to allow him to talk, she could hold him to his word. She had at least that power. Tom rarely directly lied to her. He didn't need to. She would hear him out, she would dismiss the proposition, and she would leave.

"Alright, Tom. I will hear your offer, assuming that you don't take more than half an hour to explain." That last bit was simply to reassure herself that he wouldn't just explain for years on end and keep her against her will in that manner.

Tom nodded, smiling slightly at her catch of his loophole, and began talking. "You may continue to be angry with me, but give weight to my words because you will want to remember them later.

"First, understand that I am different from Voldemort. I am also more substantial that a memory. I needed no help to attain this corporeal form. Know that, had I known of such a spell earlier, I would not have attempted to take your life."

"As comforting as that is..."

"Do not interrupt, please. As I was saying, I propose to you nothing more than a plan for escape from those that do not properly appreciate your skills. Stay here with me. I can teach you of more than any of the teachers. I understand your talents, your weaknesses, your mind.

"I can give you all the power than anyone could hope for. I would do that for you. You could be free of all the annoyances, the imperfections of Hogwarts and your so-called peers. Do not throw off my offer lightly. I will not go away. Even if you refuse, I will be here. I will remind you. You do not want to be rid of me, and so I will not go." A slight air of embarrassment pervaded as he took a short breath for the next part of his argument.

"Ginny, you are the only one to whom this has ever been offered and ever will be offered. That is all I will say. Consider my motivations. If I must spell them out for you, then you have slipped more than I would have expected.

"You may leave, if you wish. Just consider who – and what – you would be leaving." With those last words, Tom waved towards the door. He smiled slightly at her and got up. He walked to the black oak door and entered into what was a distinctly dark room.

Ron was about to rush straight to Dumbledore when she suddenly appeared in a mostly unused hallway. There was one secret passage in that corridor, but she was nowhere near it. He, Harry, and Hermione got the Invisibility Cloak and disappeared to help Ginny before she ran into Filch. And (in Ron's case) to scold and question his younger sister about her whereabouts for the past hour.

A/N: The reason why they didn't go to Dumbledore in that hour is because Hermione made the boys check all over the map first and Hogwarts is quite a big place. And Ginny has been gone for a little over an hour and a half but they didn't notice that she was missing for about 45 minutes. Sorry for any confusion.


	5. Chapter 5

Ginny heard his door open and close before she ran for the door. The door opened (thankfully) and the stairs were in sight. Without pausing, she began up them.

After a few minutes, she slowed, suddenly remembering the length of the stairway. The rather long length. She took the rest of the stair at a much slower pace, but she reached the top about an hour and forty-five minutes after she had left it.

As she left the sanctity of the passage, Ginny's eyes darted, looking for Filch and his cat. Filch was not in sight, but he was no doubt only a minute or two away. Her only hope to get to Gryffindor Tower unseen was to run. She caught her breath quickly and started her silent sprint down the corridors.

She heard footsteps in front of her and she stopped. She was about to turn back when she heard Mrs. Norris behind her. She was trapped. She found a suit of armor, hoping beyond hope to be overlooked in the dark corner.

Just before she could get to her hiding place, Mrs. Norris appeared around the corner. She meowed for Filch who was just about to turn the corner when Ginny was grabbed by three pairs of hands, and she found herself sitting on the feet of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, thankfully hidden from Filch's sight by the Invisibility Cloak.

She looked at them gratefully as Filch looked carefully in every corner but passed them up. He stopped suspiciously in the middle of the corridor, feeling the students' presences. "Where are they, precious? Did they try to run? They should know better than to be out of bed at this time of night."

As soon as Filch and Mrs. Norris turned the corner, Ginny looked up gratefully to her friends. "Thanks, guys. I thought that I was going to be in detention for months."

Ron was making his oh-so-interesting transformation from freckled and pale to bright red and inarticulate as he sputtered "where in bloody hell were you?"

"Let's talk about this when we get back to the common room," interjected the voice of reason, Hermione.

The trip back to Gryffindor Tower was long, and particularly painful due to the fact that they had four people and one cloak. It was excessively crowded until they decided to just have a strict lookout for Filch. The method seemed a good one, since they managed to not get detention on the way back to their dormitories.

Back at the tower, Ginny was immediately set upon by the others. A flurry of questions spun down upon her, mostly about her location. Ginny was a good liar, but she was also very stressed out and tired. Therefore, her best escape route was that of sleep.

"As much as I would love to answer all of your questions, if I don't go to sleep now you won't be able to get me up for a month. Goodnight!" was her cheerful parting line. Ron, Harry, and Hermione just stared after her, not use to such put-offs.

The next morning, Ginny awoke later than usual. She had been kept up most of the night by the persistent recurring nightmare that she thought had disappeared in Second Year. It was disappointing to find that that was not the case.

The nightmare was silly, and she knew it. In the dream, she and Tom would be walking in the Chamber of Secrets. He would be telling her of the creature that he could command for her. She would seem to be agreeing, but she would always be trying to scream at him to kill the basilisk. Then, the darkness would envelope them both, leaving utter blackness. Tom would say "it's coming." Ginny would then scream to Tom not to leave her alone with the basilisk, at which point he would disappear and she would wake up. It used to be that she would wake up screaming. Later, she learned to stifle the screams and wake up with cold sweat. Her self-inflicted training hadn't left her, as she learned on about four separate occasions that night.

Ginny sat in her bed, not even bothering to go to breakfast. She wasn't hungry enough to face the barrage of questions unprepared. Unfortunately, she didn't even know how they had known that she was missing. Hermione had known that she was staying out after hours, and she hadn't been gone all that long. her best bet was avoidance or silence until someone slipped up.

First, she needed a good excuse for avoidance. She had had her period a week ago, so that wouldn't do. A bad night of sleep was a good start. Maybe something mumbled with a vague male name would confuse Ron long enough for her to sort out her brain.

She was as prepared as she was going to be considering the minimal sleep and maximum anxiety. Ginny got dressed and walked cautiously to the foot of the dormitory stairs. There was no ambush... until she was three feet from the portrait hole. She got asked the predictable questions such as where had she been, and why had she been so tired last night. To those questions, she offered one mumbled, hopefully groggy-sounding sentence: "mmm... mumble fight mumble Roger mumble couldn't sleep."

She walked through the portrait hole with the other three, and she heard exactly what she had hoped to hear. Ron was ranting about "all of her bloody boyfriends." Hermione was lamenting the loss of sleep that might interfere with her studies. Harry was silent in contemplation, but he smiled at her and seemed to accept her answer, or at least her lack of an answer.

It wasn't too long before she could escape her three friends in the library with the excuse of a "nasty potions essay for Snape." Instead of doing her imaginary essay, she sat in a generally unused corner and though of the night before.

Tom had said to think of his motivations, but what could they be? She knew that she was probably being stupid and overlooking something obvious. Well, the only way she knew to get to the answer was to look at the evidence – his offer. He told her that she would have escape, power, and knowledge. Escape she didn't think advisable or pleasant. Power, well "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," enough said. She definitely didn't want power. Knowledge, now that was to be desired. The thing was, his specialty was the Dark Arts, and she did not want to know about the Dark Arts. She already knew too much about Dark magic.

Tom knew her, no matter how much she hated to admit it. He had heard her secrets and innermost thoughts for an entire year. If he had remembered what pet names he had called her, then he would most certainly remember the things that she had dwelt upon the most – her obsession with Harry, her hope to impress her family, and her increasing love of magic and learning. She wasn't Hermione, but she still liked the subjects taught at Hogwarts.

With that knowledge, Tom must realize that the things that he had offered were not the things that she would want or respond to. That made her curious and angry, as she was sure was its intended effect. He knew her so well, that even at a distance he could play upon her very mind and twist it the way that he wanted. That was rather manipulative for so early in the day.

So, who would want escape, power, and knowledge? Tom. Tom was giving her what he wanted for himself. Now she was really confused. He was giving away something that he refused to give (in any substantial amount) to anyone else. That needed more feeling that she supposed that he had. She had been tricked before and didn't like the way that this was feeling.

She was always angry with him. It was a normal in her life to be angry with him, something to base her actions around, even though she could never bring herself to outright hate him.

The problem was, she wasn't feeling that angry anymore. Ginny felt lost as well as confused. She couldn't decide if she hated him or loved him. Maybe both. In any case, she couldn't read his mind – at least not until she had one or two more pieces of information.

There was one thing that she was sure of: she wouldn't get any proper rest until she had this sorted out. There was only one way to sort out the situation. She had to settle her mind as to what he was thinking and what he wanted. Ginny needed to ask him one question. The answer to that question would decide what he wanted. He had told her to figure out his motivations, after all.

She put away the book that she had been pretending to use for her "potions essay." She walked from the library to the corridor that had been the beginning of her adventure the night before. She found the tapestry. She lifted it and looked at the small carving there. Just like it had last night, the door slid open, and she disappeared once again from the rarely-frequented hallway.

It turned out that the hall was not nearly as empty as Ginny could have hoped. Harry and Ron took off the Invisibility Cloak. "Did she go off the map?"

"I can't find her anymore" replied Harry. "Should we try the opening? See of we can follow?"

Instead of answering Harry's rather obvious question, Ron went to the tapestry and looked at the spot where Ginny had. There was a small carving of a dragon below eye-level. If he hadn't known that something was there, he probably wouldn't have seen it. Ginny hadn't said anything, hadn't touched anything, so he expected it to simply open for him. It didn't. He tried everything that he could think of, but none of the usual methods worked. He looked at Harry helplessly.

Harry answered his unspoken plea: "I think that we need Hermione for this one."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Welcome to the last part of the story.

Her legs were still tired from the night before, so the trip down was much more painful, although decidedly less mysterious. At the bottom of the stairs, Tom was not there to meet her as he had been before, so she was forced to find him. She supposed that he was probably where she had left him last night.

She walked into the obsidian room and from there to the oak door. She opened it and walked into a very dark bedroom. It was quite elegant, with polished wood and deep colors. Tom was, as far as she could tell, fast asleep on the bed that occupied one corner of the room that appeared to be a study as well as a bedroom.

She walked to approximately the middle of the room where she could see him but was still close enough to the door to feel comfortable and not trapped. "Tom?" She watched him bolt up, his normally very neat appearance somewhat tussled. "I didn't know that you actually slept."

"Everybody sleeps." His voice was gravelly from sleep, and he was obviously trying to compose himself. Tom Riddle was definitely not accustomed to being awoken in such a manner.

"I just have one question to ask you." Ginny was slightly nervous, not quite sure what kind of query this was – stupid or intelligent. Either way, his answer would clear up some sort of confusion.

Tom nodded and stood up. He had on his robes that he had been wearing the night before, and they were slightly wrinkled. He walked in front of her with his hands behind her back and looked at her attentively.

"Why did the doors open for me?" The question was somewhat random, it seemed, but it was important. Tom had told her that everything was his and that nothing would obey her, and yet they had. Even the door at the top of the stairs.

Tom looked amused by her words. Before he could answer, however, a small tapping sound started to ring in the room, and he tilted his head to the side. "What's that?" Ginny asked her second, more unexpected, question.

See note at bottom "Well, that is my door bell of sorts. Someone other than yourself has found my carving and is, rather amateurishly, attempting to open the door. They won't succeed, but it is certainly annoying. I shall have to discourage them."

"Who is it?"

"Shall we take a trip and see?" Ginny's legs were tired from the continual stairs, but she agreed since she was curious. And she didn't want anything bad to happen.

Ginny was in luck. Tom apparently had no wish to travel the stairs either. He got to the bottom of the stairs and pressed a small lever that was hidden among the decorations on the walls. The lever opened a small door. Tom ushered her through and they appeared in a narrow, badly lit corridor that apparently ran parallel to the passage at the head of the stairs. It was, seemingly, a magical door. She wished that she had known about it before, so that she wouldn't have had to walk so much.

She looked at Tom somewhat curiously, and he actually decided to explain: "It allows us a faster exit than the stairs. It has a door to the main corridor a few meters from where the stairs begin. As an added bonus, it has a few convenient holes for us to look through. Some at eye-level for me and a few significantly below eye-level for you." Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and looked through.

Of all the people to find at the head of the stairs, there were the three people that she most certainly did not want to find it. "Damn it. Damn cloak," she muttered, not oblivious to the fact that they must have followed her.

"Friends of yours?" was Tom's comment, even though the slight tensing of his voice told her that he recognized Harry all too well. Ginny chose not to reply. "Would you like to think on this some more, or should I relieve you of your quagmire?"

Ginny spun around to face him. "What do you want to do?" she asked suspiciously.

"Don't you trust me?"

"You should know the answer to that already." Ginny went back to watching her friends try various spells.

"Well, whatever happens, just get them to stop trying that door. It won't open and that alarm spell will give me a migraine after a while."

"First you're sleeping, then you're talking about migraines? You sound almost like a normal teenager."

"You don't have to be offensive. You came back on your own."

"And you still didn't answer my question. Why do the doors open for me. You were sleeping when I came back, so you weren't controlling them, and they obviously won't open for everyone." She gestured in the direction of her struggling friends who had actually cheered when the dragon carving had moved a bit to spit some fire at them.

In the relative dark of the corridor, Ginny couldn't see Tom very well, but she could feel the hand that he put on her arm just fine. He turned her towards him and kissed her ever so quickly on the lips. Then, he released her arm and said, "does that answer your question? What's mine is yours as soon as you decided to come back."

Tom turned back to the failing trio as though nothing had happened. He, in fact, couldn't believe what had happened. It is one thing to plan such an interaction, it is another to note the astonishment on her face and feel the thankfully invisible blush rising to his own cheeks.

Ginny was silent. She was amazed and frightened and happy and worried and dozens of other emotions that were completely foreign to her. Then, she spoke, "you won't leave me in the dark, will you Tom?"

"No," was his simple reply. She nodded, sure that he would keep his word, just as he always had – to her, anyway.

"I suppose that I can tell them that it is my little study hideout. Do you think that I can pull off some sort of illusion and claim that I need privacy?"

"And the tutoring begins. We can work on it. We can let them amuse themselves for another couple of hours while we set it up. Then you can come and go without too much wondering on your friends' parts."

_So he did know that I would never actually leave Hogwarts._ Tom and Ginny walked back along the corridor, through the door, and back to the foot of the stairs.

As he led Ginny to a row of illusion spellbooks that he had in his room, he realized that although he had considered the night a success, Ginny would probably exert her will in their relationship to a point where the entire thing would probably be great training for casting off the Imperius. He accepted that. Just as he accepted – with a smile that no one but she would ever see – the way that she welcomed his hand on her elbow.

A/N: The reason that the tapping doesn't occur when Harry and Ron try to open the door is because they really don't know the right sort of spells. Tom's warning spell didn't even register them as trying to enter. Hermione, on the other hand, has some base knowledge on the subject, so she is a bit more successful.

A/N 2: Thanks for sticking with this story all the way through. I hope that you liked it. Most of it was probably redone about half a dozen times since my characters seem to change with my moods heheheh. If you didn't like it, well, too bad. Coming up with an ending was horrible. And sorry for a lack of actual romance. Oh well, I can't write about that sort of thing. I'll see you (not literally) if you read my other stories! 'Till then.


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